A counterfeit refurbished drive next to a genuine Seagate drive

From afar, the most obvious difference is the shape of the labels. The drive on the left has a standard looking rectangle label, while the drive on the right has an interesting shape with curved corners; this is the genuine Seagate drive. With the counterfeit drive, the original label has been removed and replaced by a fake rectangle label. A rectangle label is cheap and easy to make, no curves are required to be cut.

A closer look at the counterfeit drive

Upon closer inspection, it can be observed that the label is of very poor quality. The printing is all splotchy and the text unreadable. If you look on the edges of the label, you can also see traces of where the original label was adhered to, this proves the original label was removed. Judging by the scratches on the metal casing, this drive is not new; and most likely refurbished.

A look at the drives details

It can be observed the serial number is 3QD0FF2D. All Seagate drives have individual serial numbers that will validate on Seagate’s Warranty Validation page. In this case the counterfeit drive returns ‘Expiration Unknown’, genuine drives will return an Expiration date. All Seagate 750GB drives have 5 years Seagate warranty, even the OEM drives from what I have experienced. Once again there are a lot of scratches on the surface.

The final confirmation

The thing about hard disk drives, is that you can write anything you want on the label, but the drives embedded information (included serial number) will not lie. Seagate offers SeaTools, drive diagnostic software for the Seagate range. The easiest way to get a copy of SeaTools is from the Ultimate Boot CD. SeaTools was run on the counterfeit drive, and a screen captures taken.

SeaTools confirms the model is indeed a ST3750640NS, however the serial number is actually 5QD18MCE, and the Firmware is actually 3.AEK. This is the hard proof that this drive has had its label removed.

Conclusion

The reasons for a removed label are most likely that the drive is refurbished, when Seagate refurbishes a drive they sometimes replace the label with a new label stating it is a refurbished drive. Note; this is still a genuine Seagate label, the label will still be that interesting shape with curved corners, it will however say refurbished on it. Buyers don’t like refurbished drives, so it may have been the seller replaced the refurbished label so that he could then sell the drives as ‘new’. Refurbished drives are also cheaper for sellers to buy.

In order to minimise being discovered, sellers will most likely sell the counterfeit drives in a cheap hard disk drive enclosures, as it was in my case. Always inspect any drives that arrive in enclosures to confirm you have received what was advertised. Do not simply make sure it works and looks nice.

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